Investigating the Role of Closed Captioning and Live Transcription on DHH Students' Perception of Inclusivity in a Face-to-Face Classroom Environment

In today's face-to-face classrooms, deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students are one of the major types of students with disabilities who face various challenges in the classroom. Given the current technological advancements, DHH students still face the challenge of inclusivity in the classroom. DHH students form their perceptions about their inclusion in the classroom based on their prior and ongoing experiences in the classroom. We have created a prototype by integrating real-time captioning and live transcription for DHH students to help them follow the proceedings of the class. We focus on existing machine-based captioning systems that leverage automated speech recognition (ASR) and artificial intelligence-based web applications for live transcription. We used in-class observations to collect information regarding students' perceptions of the prototype and evaluate its usability. We found that the prototype has the potential to help DHH students follow lectures and class discussions, enabling them to keep up with their peers and participate in the learning process. Overall observations show that DHH students used transcript and captioning data to participate in class discussions and peer activities and appeared to be satisfied while keeping pace with classroom instructions.